Chávez came to San Antonio in 2009 to lead the Southwest Texas council, which covers a 21-county area, including Bexar.

Her selection was hailed by young scouts as well San Antonio’s corporate and governmental leadership, several of whom underscored census numbers that show Hispanics represent the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group.

“She is the new face of the Girl Scouts,” said Jackie Gorman-Johnson, board chairwoman of the Southwest Texas council. “She is who we are. The demographics of our country are changing, and for the first time, we’ll have a woman of color leading the organization. I’m excited.”

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Ruby Gradillas, a fourth-grader at Linton Elementary School, agreed with Perez’s assessment of Chávez, referring to her as “Eagle 1.”

“It means she’s very, very, very nice,” Ruby said of Chávez’s camp name. The girl is one of several from local Troop 7775 who’ll appear on Girl Scouts cookie boxes in January.

Patricia Diaz Dennis, who has served on the Girl Scout hiring committee and was the first Latina to be national board chairwoman of Girl Scouts USA, said Chávez “is a terrific role model for all American girls, but especially for Latinas.”

“You can’t dream big unless you are exposed to it. This shows Latina girls that you, too, can achieve this,” she said.

The nonprofit group has about 3.2 million members — 2.3 million girls and 880,000 adults, most of the latter volunteers.

In recent years, it has been realigning itself from 312 councils nationwide to what Chávez called 112 “high-capacity councils.”

“Right now I’m proud to say we represent the diversity of our council, which stretches from the Mexican border halfway to Austin,” she said. Fifty-one percent of its 21,300 Girl Scouts are Latina.

Nationally, the Girl Scouts’ Hispanic membership increased 55 percent between 2000 and 2010 to about 272,000, or 12 percent of the total.

Chávez’s highlighted among her accomplishments the creation of new paths to scouting, noting that girls can become involved outside of traditional troops.

She said she’s most proud of the team of professional Girl Scouts she assembled in San Antonio, calling them “truly passionate about our mission of serving girls.”

“We have forged new partnerships with local nonprofits and corporations that do business in Southwest Texas,” she said. “We’ve embraced elected officials in our 21 counties. Mayors and officials have become members of our Girls Scout movement. We have organized around a common mission.”

The local council serves 31,000 girls and adult members and has an annual budget of $5.5 million, according to its Web site. It also has two camp properties in the Texas Hill Country, the Avenida Guadalupe Girl Scout Center on the city’s West Side and nine satellite centers in outlying areas.

“The Girls Scouts have been working for several years now to make this 100th anniversary a year of new beginnings,” said Luis de la Garza, a board member of the council and president and CEO of Texen Power Co. “Bringing Anna in will boost the direction in which they are going.”

He noted Chávez was part of a U.S. delegation that attended the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts’ 34th World Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, this summer.

“In addition to bringing the perspective of a CEO, she served as a (Spanish-language) translator,” he said. “She can fulfill many roles because of her abilities and talents, not just national but internationally.”

“We’re so proud we had her here in San Antonio for a couple of years,” said Catherine Leos, Ruby’s mother. “Now she can show her vision to the rest of the country.”